Andi Marquette's Blog: Andi Land, page 26

How-to writing books

Hi, kids–

One of the ironies of writing is that we tend to read other writers’ guides on how to write. And we should, because there are some really good writing guides out there. It’s important to have guides on hand to grammar and punctuation, guides that help us figure out infrastructure, and tips that we can implement in our own writing to take our games to the next level. And then there are inspirational writing guides that can make you feel warm and fuzzy after you’ve had writing issues.

S...

Writing a mystery series: tips and timing

Hey, kids–

Hope this weekend treats you well. I’ve been thinking about series. That is, the series of books that authors write — usually in genre fiction like mystery or speculative fiction. In addition to my standalone short stories and novella-length stories, I write two series. One mystery, one sci fi.

Like many writers (most, probably), I have a day job, which means I have to really budget my time and make schedules so that I get writing time in as often as I can. I generally try to write e...

More things you shouldn’t do as an author

Hi, kids–quickie here.

Caught this article on HuffPo a couple days ago: “11 Things Not to Do Before Your Book Launch,” by M.J. Rose.

Most of these tips are pragmatic, like the first 3:

1. Don’t assume everyone will wake up the day your book comes out and rush out to buy it . (No one can buy a book they have never heard of.)

2. Don’t spend more than 10% of your marketing/pr budget on a trailer. Trailers have to be marketed too. So far too many authors wind up marketing their trailers instead of th...

More on the Writers’ Police Academy

Hey, kids!

Okay, so I’m able to get caught up with things and tell you about my weekend at the Writers’ Police Academy in North Carolina. I mentioned it a bit last week here. I’m a member of Sisters in Crime, which is so freaking awesome in so many ways, not least of which is helping subsidize the WPA registration fee for its members. BIG FREAKING SHOUT-OUT TO SinC! And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all the staff at the Guilford, NC sheriff’s department, who VOLUNTEERED all their time to wo...

Writers’ Police Academy

Hey, kids!

Okay, so I had the super-cool chance to attend the Writers’ Police Academy this year.

source

I’ve been wanting to go, and this year I had the chance. So I did. I’ll talk more about it in a later blog, as I’m still trying to catch up after my almost 4 days of constant go go go. But I do want to make a few things clear in this blog. You’ll see those below.

Something that helped me immensely: As a member of the organization Sisters in Crime, my registration cost was $100. That was a giant...

So you want to be a writer. Bless your heart.

Hi, folks–

I’ll be on the road in the next few days, so I won’t be able to check in as often as I’d like. But DON’T WORRY! I’ll be back, and probably with some tales to tell.

Anyway, I follow Broadside (because it’s an awesome blog. Hello.) and today, Caitlin Kelly (the woman who does Broadside) had a super good post about what it takes to be a writer. READ IT. Not that I’m pushing you or anything.

She didn’t use the term “stubborn,” but I sure will (Caitlin used “persistence”). Because that’s i...

Dude, where’s your story?

Hi, peeps–

Hope everything finds you groovy. I’m currently working on my latest novels. One is the third installment of my science fiction series and the other is the fourth book in my New Mexico mystery series. And I like to keep up with blogs that offer tips and writing hints/fun stuff for authors. To that end, this post by writing guru Lisa Cron over at Writer Unboxed has some excellent advice.

The post, titled “The Biggest Mistake Writers Make and How to Avoid It,” notes that STORY is the c...

More author interviews coming up at Women and Words!

Hi, kids!

OMG this week has been crazy bizzy. But don’t worry! The Summer Blast Tour has morphed into the Fall Fiesta Tour over at Women and Words, so check in on Fridays for fun n’ games and GIVEAWAYS! YES!

This Friday, author Mary Vermillion stopped by to chat about her series starring radio host/sleuth Mara Gilgannon. Mary sets her mysteries in Iowa (which I think is super groovy). She also has a secret (okay, not so secret) identity as a professor of English and she teaches way cool classes...

Yes, people DO judge a book by its cover

I did a post over at Women and Words on some funny stuff — worst book covers, worst album covers, worst books — and that led me to actually want to post one of those worst covers I really enjoyed. Here it is:



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You so know you want to read on…

Before you completely wig about it, the thing about this cover is it might actually be a snark/campfest. DAW books (the publisher) is a mainstream big publisher, and the editor of this collection of short stories is Martin Greenberg, w...

Working the tech angle

So I read somewhere that Goodreads can interface with your blog. I'm not sure that's the Goodreads blog (which seems self-evident, right?) or some outside blog you might have.

I'm guessing the latter. So I'm going to figure out whether that's possible. Cuz if it is, that could be a really cool flavor of awesome.

In the meantime, you can find my stuff on Amazon. Right here.

Keep it real, yo.